I first ran across the Antidote in an article on Brain Pickings (which, incidentally, you should check out if you haven’t already. Just be careful it doesn’t eat your afternoon, and not just because the articles tend to be long). Happiness was something that fascinated me in college and up until recently. The Antidote (and Bright-Sided, which we’ll get to later) were basically the final nail in the coffin that killed it for me. These days I’m more interested in contentment as laid out by Leo Babauta, which is more like a stable baseline of satisfaction with the current state of affairs to work from, not trying for a constant, permanent emotional high. Contentment in this case is not laziness and should not be confused with it, but that’s another post entirely.

The first two chapters of Oliver Burkeman’s the Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, are focused on a discussion of Stoicism and Buddhism. “I thought Buddhism was pro-happiness” you’re probably thinking to yourself. Well, no, not exactly. The goal of Buddhism is the end of suffering, not necessarily happiness, there’s a big difference. Ending suffering is learning not to fixate on the bad shit that happens, whether getting a paper cut, or breaking up with your girlfriend, or something far worse. The goal is more akin to Babauta’s conception of contentment, or the ability to “roll with the punches,” to fully experience whats going on right now completely without being invested in it so much you suffer when it inevitably ends. This is learned, in this case, through Mindfulness techniques.

Stoicism has gotten a bit of a bad wrap in the modern US, but only because most people don’t know much about what it actually teaches except believing that it involves ascetic degrees of denial. As we learn in the first chapter, Stoicism is a much more realistic philosophy. Its more interested in confronting reality instead of deluding yourself into thinking everything is going to be great, right up until its not. The Stoics did this by conducting experiments to prove to themselves that something wasn’t as bad as their minds wanted them to think. While these experiments occasionally had a tendency to be more than a little dangerous, we get a bit of a safer taste when Burkeman performs a stoic inspired experiment and gets on public transit, announcing each stop just before the system does. The idea here is to put yourself in a potentially embarrassing situation, and prove to yourself that the world won’t end, to discover that the world doesn’t revolve around you, and that’s a good thing.

Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich is the perfect introduction to Burkeman’s book, as she lays out why “Positive Thinking” is so destructive. The book opens with her diagnosis with breast-caner, and the first chapter is a condemnation of the culture that’s grown up around the disease as actually inhibiting a realistic approach to dealing with it, instead seeing it as a “right of passage,” and a demeaning one at that. The most important chapters in the book are near the end, showing how Positive Thinking led to the collapse of the US economy through “Prosperity Gospel” preachers who owe more to New Thought than the gospel of Christianity, and motivational coaches who were brought in to the workplace of most every major company to stifle any negativity, including not telling bosses when plans would have crippling fall-out, and treatment that approaches brainwashing of newly fired employees. She also takes pains to point out that this is something that occurs along the entire spectrum, discussing liberal and conservative entities who swear by this flawed practice.

Ehrenrieich goes on to suggest in the postscript that the proper response to Positive Thinking is not Negativity, which Positive Thinking proponents seem to imply is the only alternative, but a sort of realism that resembles Stoicism and Buddhism as discussed in the Antidote.

Certainly fans of New Thought and Positive Thinking will not like these books, but they are the ones that most desperately need to read them. Their strength is that while they condemn the practice, they defend the people who believe such things will save them, explaining how Positive Thinking hobbles and dis-empowers the exact people who think it will empower them.

Both Burkeman’s “The Antidote” and Ehrenreich’s “Bright-Sided” get my Buy recommendation. Go get yoyurselves your own copy and study this stuff. I promise you won’t regret it.

What do you get when you combine steam punk, automata, and zombies with Sherlock Holmes and Watson like protagonists?

Pure, unadulterated awesomeness, thats what.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann is set in an alternate history Victorian London where steam powers everything, automata fly airships, and zombies and a phantom murderer roam the streets of London.

This is the world that we enter to meet Sir Maurice Newbury, an academic specialising in prehistoric religions, an agent in Her Majesty’s service, and his assistant, Veronica Hobbes, who are so similar to Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson except for backstory, that it must have been intentional, right down to Newbury having a substance problem, and a Lestrad in Sir Charles Bainbridge, the Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard.

Within the first fifty or so pages a group of British soldiers are attacked by zombies in India, the aforementioned automata piloted air ship crashes in London, and Mann doesn’t let up from then on.

The focus of the plot is an investigation into the crashed airship and its automaton pilot, both built by Chapman and Villiers, a pair of men who are not what they seem at first. Nor are the murders in Whitechapel that appear to be perpetrated by a glowing blue phantom policeman.

The book is well paced and written, though I did find myself getting lost and forgetting who even major characters were on occasion. About a dozen minor characters that pop in and out of the narrative, and a side story involving Veronica Hobbes mean there’s a lot going on in these scant couple hundred pages, and a lot to keep track of. The book is the first in a series, and especially with the epilogue, its clear that Mann is setting up threads that won’t be resolved until later in the series.

If you’re new to the steampunk genre, there’s nothing overly intimidating here, except for “ground trains” which are essentially motorised carriages, the steampunk influence doesn’t really show itself until the endgame of the book when its revealed that Bainbridge’s cane can turn into what amounts to a supercharged taser.

Overall, if you enjoy a good mystery, and aren’t bored with zombies, I recommend borrowing this one and giving it a read.

Stuff is replaceable, people (and time) aren’t. Shift your attention toward the people you love and the experiences that make you happy.

-Tammy Strobel

I’ve been following Tammy’s Journey via her blog, RowdyKittens, for about two years now, ever since she and her husband Logan were living in a small three room apartment in California (kitchen, bathroom, and livingroom that did double duty as the bedroom). These days they have a neat little tiny house they call home. When I heard she was releasing a print book I headed off to Amazon to preorder right off, and I’ve gotta say, You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too does not disappoint. If you’ve read collections of blog posts published as ebooks by bloggers, you’re in for a nice surprise, because thats not what this is. The entire thing is brand new content, and well worth reading.

You Can Buy Happiness is a blend of the story of Tammy’s personal journey into minimalism, the stories of fellow bloggers, and suggestions about how to take a similar journey in your own life. Really, this isn’t that much different from RK itself, which may be why it works. Tammy’s strength is teaching through story and her own personal discoveries, so it makes sense that she do the same when she writes a book.

Each chapter has a distinct focus related to the overarching idea that things can be replaced, people and time can’t. Starting out Tammy addresses the issue of stuff, how to get rid of it and how to change your relationship to that stuff. Debt is also covered in its own chapter. The last section titled “Buying Happiness” is specifically about how to use money to buy happiness instead of things. Each chapter ends with “Micro-Actions.” These are all little things we can do to start making the big changes she’s suggesting.

One of my favorite chapters was “the Joy of the Small House” wherein Tammy talks about what it was like moving into a tiny house, and what its like living in one. Tiny house living has always held a certain attraction for me, and she manages to talk about it while avoiding an air of superiority. I also greatly enjoyed the last two chapters “the Art of Community Building” and “the Power of Tiny Pleasures.” In the first, she focuses on what to do instead of all that screen time she gave up, focusing on volunteering and finding groups with shared interests. The second is about rediscovering the joy of the little stuff we knew in childhood but seem to have forgotten: flowers, an ice cream cone, and being with the people we love and care about.s

The great strength of the book, as I’ve hinted at, is its avoidance of a doom and gloom/I’m better than you mentality that seems to be prevalent these days. This could easily have been a pet project wherein a blogger pats their own back. Thankfully, thats not what this is. Tammy has always written with a level of genuine-ness and vulnerability, and this comes through in the book in spades.

At the beginning, minimalism for most people is about getting rid of excess stuff, and not letting more into our lives, but if this is all it is, its a pretty useless philosophy. Minimalism, at its core, is about reclaiming our lives, finding meaning and purpose, and You Can Buy Happiness is a great example of that.

Tammy is in the midst of a real world tiny book tour as we speak, but if you aren’t in California or Oregon, you should totally check out her digital book tour here. (also has details about the RL tour)

(fun fact: In the beginning, it was Tammy’s husband Logan that wanted to simplify. He actually had to talk Tammy into it. That still makes me chuckle.)

If you’re anything like me, you like to be able to read a bit of a book before buying it. Since this is my first review and you guys don’t really know my likes/dislikes yet, and there’s an opportunity, I thought I’d link to a few excerpts fron YCBH. You can check out the intro here. You can also check out a guest article by Tammy and another excerpt here, and an interview and third excerpt here.